


A Single Pale Peridot

by Spirolateral



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen, One Shot, Spoilers for Episode: s05e18 A Single Pale Rose
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-28
Updated: 2018-06-28
Packaged: 2019-05-29 20:20:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 581
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15080978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spirolateral/pseuds/Spirolateral
Summary: A gem comes to understand her purpose.





	A Single Pale Peridot

She arrived on an ephemeral planet. Its destiny was fixed, as was hers: it would die, and she would be the cause of that. There would be no chance or reason for it or her to find another path.

But while the life on the planet would soon lose its grip on existence, it was still thriving, in its own impossible way. None of the many fascinating beings that walked that planet’s surface knew that their routines would soon come to an end, and so they continued on, making plans for a future that would never come.

And she was above it all, of course. No matter how incredible the life on the planet was, she was not a part of it: she was merely there to be the one who would put an end to it all. There was no reason whatsoever to actually go see it up close: after all, it would serve no purpose, and would only delay her from achieving her objective.

And so, when her destiny inevitably fell apart, that was exactly what she did.

It wouldn’t supplant her purpose, of course. Her presence on the surface of the planet, surrounded by life, was merely a setback, not a choice. Obviously. If she made a choice like that, she would be irrational, and she wasn’t irrational. Not in the slightest. She came here to destroy the world, and she would not fail.

And soon, she found herself among humanity, without the power that had kept her above them all this time. And all too quickly, they accepted their would-be destroyer as one of their own. This was even more irrational than the choice that she had made before—or rather, the choice that she didn’t make, because of course she’d never be so irrational as to make a choice like that. But the humans saw no shame in ignoring the obvious course of action of destroying her before she would have the chance to destroy them. Instead, they offered compassion—a pointless emotion, which clearly served no practical purpose.

And, far too late, she realized that the power to destroy the planet had never been hers to control. The planet’s destiny was still fixed, even if her own had been thrown wildly off course. And in becoming a part of the life on the planet’s surface—only as a matter of location, of course, certainly not anything beyond that—the planet’s fate was tied to her own: as the life on the planet would perish, so would her future.

That was when she decided to take power over her own destiny. She turned against her superiors and her purpose, and stopped the planet’s destruction. She joined humanity as a new leader: after all, the humans would need somebody to make rational decisions, since they seemed incapable of doing so themselves. And so, she was finally a part of this planet, and she had the life that she could now admit she’d always wanted.

In time, she learned the values of love and kindness and all those irrational emotions. Feelings themselves were something that had value–not just her own, but also those of the people around her. And in learning this, she had finally found her place. She had a home, she had friends, and she didn’t have a purpose to interfere with her future.

And finally, she heard of the Diamond that became a Quartz, and learned that all of this had been done before.


End file.
